Tristan Alexander Ross
'Tristan Alexander Ross '(born July 25th, 7 L.C.) is the current Fleet Admiral of The Navies for the Eastern Initiative Trading Company. He is also a majority owner in numerous endeavors led by the Zundrbar Corporation, such as the Zundrbar Shipping Company, Zundrbar Air, and more. Ross has been renowned to be very adept at tactical planning on battlefields and in naval skirmishes, and is somewhat feared because of such regard. In his 14 years of total naval service, starting at the unusually young age of 13, it took him only 10 years to reach the status of Admiralty. Ross is also known to be very business aggressive, with a very large and prestigious investment portfolio behind his name. Despite such huge assets, he does his best in order to hide his wealth and net worth from the public eye, and would rather live a more simple and humble life. However, this becomes the exact opposite mindset he has in in trading negotiations. Appearance Ross is well known for his large build, standing at the impressive height of 6 feet, 5 inches, and weighing in at 211 pounds. In many ways, he is very athletic, and tuned for overall endurance, with the ability to make very quick bursts of energy and strength in times of need. His skin colour would be rather pale, not sickly pale, but simple pale complexion, which is shocking, noting the time he spends outdoors. This may be due to the fact that he has lived in Ironforge for the past 10 years. His hair colour would be a mid to dark brown colour, and it is visibly getting darker over the years. His hairstyle would be rather well kept, with some intentional messiness. Along with his hair, would be a full beard, also well kept, and trimmed to not bush out, being close to his face. His face would be rather weathered, from the stress and daily duties of his work, and thus, makes him appear older than what he really is, including the beard that his face dons. From a distance, one would guess he would be in his early to mid 30's. His eye colour would be rather rare, being a metallic gray, with a small ring of hazel circling his pupil. This is a standout in his family, as no other members had or have this eye colour, with everyone else having blue, or brown. Armoury & Weaponry While out of his large and heavy set of platemail, he would commonly be seen in his formal duty uniform, which is primarily black, with white decaling it, resembling the colours of the EITC. On each side, a holster would be strapped to his body, concealed under his tabard, holding two identical pistols, 6-shooter revolvers, to be exact, a slick, jet black in colour. And behind his back, yet another concealed weapon, a combat knife, stowed in it's sheath. When in his large and heavy set of platemail armour, he would equip a rather large twohanded sword, resembling a Lionheard blade, with one edge being in the shape of a lion's maw wide open, conveniently wide enough at the entrance to grapple and drag people back to him, as well as being able to maim and decapitate enemies with ease. The armour itself was mostly a steely gray colour, with an orange-gold decorating and lining it, and slight dashes of a darker gray and brighter yellow. The helmet would be a bit unique, being collapsable at the push of a button, a Gnomish invention. Early Life and Childhood Born on a sunny afternoon on July 25th, 7 L.C., one would come to expect that his upbringing would be a rather easy one, given his priviledged life he lives now. However, this would be the complete opposite, his father being the only true person to care for him in his family, and his mother, being overly abusive, commonly threatening his life and well being. At the age of 12, during a Blackrock Orc raid on the town of Lakeshire, his father was caught up in the commotion, and was later found slain in the streets, along with many others. His mother had stayed in the safety of the home, and lived, which turned out to be unfortunate, allowing her to continue tormenting and abusing him. At the age of 13, a young Ross had decided that enough was enough, and planned to put an end to all of the violence and the suffering. One year later after his father's death, his mother had went to join him to the grave, and her death was dealt by her own son's hands. In order to escape conviction of the crime, he quickly fled to Stormwind, where he lied about his age, proclaiming he was 16, and enlisted for the Grand Alliance Navy, effectively starting his naval career. Teenage Years At the age of 14, after a year of training for war from the Grand Alliance Navy, he was sent off to Theramore Isle, and continued to hone and fine tune his fighting and commanding abilities there until he turned 18 years of age. His cover about his true age was blown when he was 16, however, since he was caught at the minimum age for enlistment, he was given little to no punishment, and the officers let him slide. At the age of 17, he was assigned to his first formal crew roster, aboard the HMS Approach, a small frigate that did routine patrols around Theramore Isle and the coast of Dustwallow Marsh. Assigned to be the ship's navigator, it was his first chance at proving himself that he was adept at being able to have some form of command. At the age of 18, he was allowed to leave Theramore Isle, as his formal studies and overall training had ended, and decided to live in Ironforge, not to return to his previous home in Lakeshire, not only because of the ongoing Blackrock Orc invasions, but also to continue avoiding prosecution. Early Adulthood His years in Ironforge started rather peacefully and smoothly, until he was called out to serve on the HMS Goliath, a far larger ship, being a heavy brigantine, and was denoted as the Third Officer aboard the vessel, a position he held for the next 6 years. During his time on the HMS Goliath, it was here he was forced to do darker and dirtier deeds, all of which he refuses to talk about. His actions in doing such deeds could be considered insubordination at times, as he would be given orders not to do them, either directly, or by inferencing. However, the reason why he had committed such horrible deeds were because he had encountered the people that had harmed him, or his closest friends, or his father, in the past. Taking liberty of such opportunities, he would mercilessly kill said people who ever brought him, or anyone else close to him, pain, and also being able to worm out of accusations of murder, by using numerous excuses, in which the high ranking officers believed him. He was able to get away with the killings of 13 people this way, with absolutely nothing on record to prove them, thanks to his deception to high ranking officials. After realizing what he had done however, it had left him an emotionally torn man, almost unable to live with himself, and at times, contemplating suicide. From this, he now has Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and commonly gets flashbacks of these events. The Past 5 Years and Current Age After his service on the HMS Goliath as the Third Officer, he was promoted to the rank of Captain, and given command of the HMS Vulcan, a medium-sized galleon, a designation he held aboard that vessel for 2 years, until being promoted to the rank of Rear Admiral Lower Half, and making it his flagship for the remaining service time he had with the Grand Alliance Navy. At the age of 24, he was brought in for a court marital, over the situation with him and his ship in during the Reclaimation of Gilneas, accused of the charges of intentionally causing collateral damage. While he had never done such actions, he chose the route of resignation from his post, after being offered by Prince Ghlafferge Sootbeard of Zundrbar the rank of full Admiral in his newly formed Navy, which needed a formidable leader, and quoted that he saw Ross "more than readily fit and able for the job". Beginning his career with the Principality of Zundrbar, he had made it his overall goal to begin immediate investment into building up a large and stalwart navy for the nation, which at first was going by slowly, in rather small ammounts, until he had begun investments into other ventures Zundrbar had been involved in as well, eventually leading to the foundation of the Zundrbar Corporation, alongside the Prince himself, and Captain Folgrin Ironbeard of the Mountaineers. The Zundrbar Corporation grew incredibally fast, immediately bringing great profits to not only the nation itself but also the investors involved, with Ghlafferge and Tristan being big winners. Ross would put nearly 80% of his overall profits into investing the construction of the Zundrbar Navy, eventually financing the construction of over 40 ships, and 3 Gnomish submarines, and thus founded the Zundrbar Shipping Corporation with said Navy. Living a rather prosperous and peaceful life, Ross decided it would be best to help in being the diplomatic leader for Zundrbar in their times of political tension with the Legion of Arathor, Kingdom of the Hills, and Dominion of Alterac, being able to help delay the inevitable boiling over point by at least a year. At the age of 26, he was one of the main proponents for a 3-way alliance, forged between the Kingdom of the Hills, the Dominion of Alterac, and the Principality of Zundrbar, which eventually paved the way to the Confederacy of Independent Sovereignties, or CIS, for short-hand. The CIS would go on to not only include these 3 powers, but also many other smaller ones, eventually gaining the membership of 12 different militias, nations, and guilds. In mid-December, he had found love for the first time in a long time, with a woman named Denalia Devlin. A hunter, trapper, scout, and farmer from Westfall, Ross had courted with her for 6 months, until the drastically awful had happened. In an invasion on Zundrbar by Angerfang Orcs, his home was broken into in the middle of the night, taking Denalia and killing her, bringing Ross great anger, but also despair, as he vowed to kill any and every Orc he sees. It was only later on in the same night, that he had saw Denalia brought back up as a Forsaken, and her body malformed to be a Blood Elf, causing him to flee, apologizing for not being able to save her from such wicked fate. Furthermore, to continue his fleeing from such a horrible reality, he took his large Ship-of-the-line, the SMS Siegen, out of dock from Boerland, and sailed along the eastern coast of the Eastern Kingdoms for the next 4 months, claiming it was an "extended expedition of diplomatic envoy and trading convoy". Only originally intended to last from the month of July to August, his ship was sabotaged by the Steamwheedle Cartel when he docked in Bogspaddle, a large bomb exploding the aft of his vessel, causing him to wrestle his ship back to Boerland for repairs for the next month and a half, finally making it back in late September. After getting his fleet rounded up together, and his SMS Siegen fully repaired, he took a formal resignation from duty, wishing to take a break from sailing, but it was only a few weeks later that a familiar face, Geranelm Syla, the former leader of the Kingdom of the Hills, invited him back out to embrace the seas again, with the EITC. After mulling it over for the next couple of days, he gladly accepted the offer, allowing him to retain the command of his SMS Siegen, as well as two smaller vessels, the SMS Fürimmer and the SMS Bemühung. It only took Ross a week to prove to Syla that he was still the same Fleet Admiral he had been for the past 3 and a half years, and gladly gave him his old position back, as well as a spot on the EITC Conclave of Directors, which gave him a minority share in the company itself, by his contract's rights. Quickly growing a large following of support in the company, it did not take long for Ross to find love again, as one of the members, Lendsela Anne Wilkins, became the one he fancied, and started yet another courtship. During all of this, Ghlafferge Sootbeard had randomly disappeared, and thus, he made it her personal mission, until the end of his days, to search Ghlafferge, and find him, causing him to go across most of the Eastern Kingdoms and all of southern Kalimdor, until all of the clues leading him to Uldum, where he had found a very small camp, most likely being his, and left a series of messages behind, alerting Ghlafferge that he was looking for him, and told him where to find him. Within the next month and a half of doing this, Ghlafferge had appeared in Stormwind again, shocking practically everyone, and even drew more jaw-dropping events, as he fully merged the Zundrbar Corporation into the EITC, thus giving Ross all of his ships back, all 40 of them, and all under his control, as well as all of his other assets in many other smaller subsidiaries he had invested in. But also in the same night in which these events had occured, Ross made the bold decision to propose to Lendsela Anne Wilkins, in which she overjoyingly accepted, and thus, getting engaged with her. The future can only look upwards from here, as his life seems to be getting better and better as the days go on by. The SMS Siegen The SMS Siegen, which is his flagship, is an absolutely enormous Ship-Of-The-Line, and is one of the two flagships of the EITC Navy, the other being the very first vessel he had been posted on in his naval career the HMS Approach, that had been rebuilt and converted into a Ship-Of-The-Line, in almost equal size to Ross's own. 128 canon would be the total arnament of the vessel, with 64 on each side, making sure that any volley fired from this vessel be an impeding hell for opponents at sea. The cargohold, being able to hold up to 400 tons of cargo, made sure it was also able to safely transport many goods across the seas. His crew compliment would be overly large, with around 700 total men aboard, and around 15 high ranking officers to control it. With 4 total masts, and large rectangle sails, it had a maximum speed of 14 knots, though it commonly cruises around 9 to 10. As of recent, in honour of Ghlafferge Sootbeard, he had added his nickname to the ship's christening, becoming the SMS Ghlaff's Siegen, literally translating to "Ghlaff's Triumphs" from Hill Dwarvish to Common. OOC Disclaimer ((Ongoing WIP, of course. Check in every week and a half or so for updates. Art by myself and a few others will be on the way soon enough!)) ((It's long. I might have made mistakes! Help me out if I did! Please notify me!))